Forum: Recording Toys And Tactics

Discuss recording techniques such as mic placement, technique, and gear selection. Discuss the recording of drums, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, vocals, synths, and more. Talk about running a studio business or what should be your first audio interface or condenser microphone. Show off the latest DIY compressor you built.

"I don't think their could be anything more helpful to your engineering skills then getting KHR."------ Jeremyk23 ------

"It should be recommended reading to anyone new to this game"–ptalbot

"First reading…this is just great!"–kakeux

"It’s an easy read and packed with useful stuff!"–Emma

“It’s a SERIOUSLY IMPORTANT AND QUALITY WORK and you should be proud of it.”
–Shackman

"It’s a great guide and I agree with it 100% – wish I could have read it about 10 years ago. Good work!"– Rob Kidd

"It has loads of useful advice for us budget recorders. As well as some interesting history and personal anecdotes about a lot of the advice."–L Oquence ThePoet

"Once I started reading “Maximizing Your Recording Gear Cash” I couldn’t let go until page 49…and started again…I WISH I read it before I spent all that hard earned money on the plugins I hoped would fix my problems".–Radukku”

"I have yet to read/review/test “Patchbay Peepshow” but if Brandon has anything to do with it’s development and/or input, “I believe.” He’s never been wrong yet!!"

--Michael aka King

After running a studio for years and not even starving I decided to toss everything I know about the recording studio business in Surviving And Thriving In This BS Recording Studio Business.

Latest Articles

The BS Recording Podcast - Boz Millar From Boz Digital Labs
It's the FIRST EVER The BS Recording Podcast "episode". Episode seems a bit too formal for this train wreck.
You all know and love Boz Digital Labs plugins. Meet the man behind the mystery. No, that's no good. Find out Boz's shocking conclusion before he gets killed!. That's a little better but equally irrelevant. The info they don't want you to know about! Too much? As expected, it's all BS, boys and girls.

Groove 3 Review: Ableton Live Explained
I got a chance to try out the Groove 3: Ableton Live Explained video instruction series and I thought I'd flap my gums about it.
There are quite a few options out there nowadays for getting video help with your audio problems. (Seems almost contradictory, doesn't it?) Anyhow, I got to to use Groove 3 to learn Ableton Live a few months back. Here's my thoughts.

For the Killer Home Recording Interrogator Sessions I had acquired quite a few toys. I figured it would be fun to see if a tube condenser from probably the world's most respected audio company would knock the socks off a budget Karma K58.

I had been told for years that recording multiple amps was the absolute key to getting huge guitar tones. I even had a client bad mouthing me in town over me using just a single amp. In this test I have various combinations of my Rivera Knucklehead and 5150 blended together to see if the tone just explodes anywhere.

One myth out there was that the legendary La3a compressor was the secret weapon to high gain rock and metal guitar sounds. Is it? I compared my La3a compressor to the stock compressor in Cubase. The results may surprise you.

As guitar emulator plugins and hardware like the Axe FX and Kemper have taken over, one complaint from some is they don't mimic the sound of an overloaded speaker properly. The Celestion Vintage 30 is generally considered THE metal speaker. I pushed the living crap out of my Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier cabinet with my 5150 to see if I could find any magic. Let's see.

I was told that the Emperical Labs Lil Freq was one of the best equalizers in the world. Alright. People don't talk about the Ashly PQX-571 much. If fact, I got mine for $108. Let's see how they compare.

Some say that George Massenburg is the kind of audio engineering. He's certainly be an influential dude. He's done many big time records. He owns his own company that makes high end gear. He invented the parametric EQ. I got to meet him and hang out in his room for a bit way back in 2006.

Mercenary Audio once said the Martech MSS-10 is the "Ferrari" of mic preamps. I HAD to hear a Ferrari. A few years passed and I bought a preamp for $51. I compared the $51 preamp to the "Ferrari" here.

Karma K10s were selling for around $100 for the pair. Gefell M930s sold at the time or $2,000. Now they are much more expensive. Let's hear they compare on drum overheads we recorded in a buddy's garage.

It was MAJOR pain recommending an audio interface for a person back in the day so I whipped together the Audio Interface Wizard. Hopefully, that speeds up the process of finding the exact audio interface for your needs.

Panipulator 2 is a killer free plugin put together by Boz at Boz Digital Labs. I use it as a mono button and panning flipper, but it has a handful of useful functions.